More and more teachers and college professors seem to be worried about the decline of reading habits in young people, and I tend to agree with Dr. Bridgeman (the Dean and VP of Academic Affairs at Methodist Theological Seminary) here about it being a serious problem. Being the father to a tail-end-of-Gen Z middle schooler, AND being someone who absolutely hated compulsory education as a young person (I was a very distracted and underachieving student), puts me in a unique position to empathize and share a perspective with them that I wish someone had shared with me.

Although as a seventh grader my son is not required to do a lot of complex writing yet, I suggested that they begin to think of writing essays about assigned readings and/or book reports (which I imagine they’ll eventually have to do at some point) as an art critic might. I explained to them the difference between critiquing and criticizing and suggested that the later method of analysis (criticism) can itself be a beautiful form of art since the citric has no choice but to use personal, subjective experience and taste to assess and discuss the work of art. Thus, because of what is a more generally (but not always) negative and subjective approach (vs. the more objective and positive approach of critique) criticism can actually be a fun and persuasively powerful way (especially considering the negativity bias of the human psyche) to approach having to read and talk about a book that one might not want to read or talk about! 

I told them, ‘if you hate the book, tell your teacher in writing exactly why you hate the book (including the part about how you were forced to read that bullshit and how that makes you feel) and be poetic, clever, and funny about it. The teacher will love this, and best of all, guess what? In writing about why you hate a work of art you have simultaneously, in the process, just created your own subjective artistic expression that you can then go make into a YouTube animation or something’ LOL! Joking aside, I got the impression that the 13 yr. old seemed to seriously like the idea of their obligatory reading/writing assignment being turned into an expressive and creative project. Perhaps being exposed to this perspective early will foster a more optimistic approach to reading and writing (and even learning?) and end up helping them somehow down the road in college; Lord knows it sure would have helped me 😊

Tags:artcriticismeducationphilosophyreading